Stella Dashwood
Stella Dashwood is a character in The National Service Journal and the guardian of the Bravo Company cloister. She is particularly known for her role in putting Aimée Duchemin and her friends to the test. An Iriniais physician, Stella was once under the employ of the Iriniais military, but disappeared after Ankoù's escape from Northanger Abbey. Personal History Most of Stella's early life is unknown, and most likely also fairly uneventful. It is, however, known that she had some dealing with Professor Woodhouse sometime prior to the events at Northanger, though their former relations were likely in a professional, rather than personal, capacity. She is visibly a foil to the professor, however, as, rather than manipulating illusions to test them, she presents Aimée and company with a series of puzzles that require the movement of water and ice and call for a clear head. She also confronts the party directly rather than first summoning an illusory creature, though she does use the immense magic stored within the Northanger Ruins to alter her appearance drastically before being faced in battle. In the perfect ending, she is shown to have retired from the military to civilian practice and to have formed a family, later appearing at an advanced age as a still-practicing doctor in Bloomingvale. In every other ending, she appears aged and may be presumed to pass away shortly after, happy that the Ankoù is destroyed once and for all, but feeling herself a failure for not having been able to produce an effective remedy for his condition. Abilities Despite being a doctor, Stella appears to have little mastery of healing magics, but rather to be an expert at creating concoctions of various sorts with immense healing power. During the boss fight against her phantom form, Stella appears to specialise in ice magic, but will also attempt to inflict several debilitating status effects. When her HP or MP is significantly depleted, she will attempt to recover it with a cordial, and, if successful, will fully restore it, though it can be snatched away with proper timing. As a summon, Stella possesses the same abilities she did as a boss, though her ability to remain present at the present time is limited due to the temporal displacement in which she lives. Entering the Cloister Outside Stella's cloister is the following poem, the title of which literally means "The dreamer beneath the snow". In keeping with the general French-English ambience of the game, the title is given in French, whilst the verses are in English. Le songeur sous la neige In the darkest of hours, when cities sleep, ''I heard the belltower strike, ringing the hour, ''And as I turned to look upon the tower, ''A whit’ning veil o’er all began to creep. ''When then, the chilling gale from off the deep, ''Made felt across the land its whit’ning power, ''And snatched the petals from each ling’ring flower ''I fell upon the ground, quite fast asleep. ''The chill no longer could bite through my coat: ''The white snow was grown warm -- ‘twas very queer -- ''And suddenly, I felt a chilling fear. ''The stars grew closer, and a shimm’ring boat, ''Came out to meet me from across the sea ''From which a soothing voice called out to me. ------------------------------------------- The poem is a traditional Italian sonnet. It has been reproduced here with permission of the author under the licence above noted. It may not be commercially used without permission from the author, and neither may it be alterred and redistributed without his consent, as is noted in the license. It describes the death of a man caught out in a snowstorm. Who he is or why he was out are not detailled, though his death is painless, though he is saddened by it, and he accepts it in the end when one would wish for him to fight and live again. If certain conditions are met prior to entering the cloister, the poem will already have been removed, and, after conversing with Stella, a paper will blow to Aimée's feet after she emerges which bears the poem, albeit with the final three lines changed to read -- And then I heard resound a silver note -- ''A child's dog had dug me from the snow ''And brought me 'fore a fire's warming glow. Trivia *Stella's surname is derived from the Dashwood sisters in Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. Category:The National Service Journal Characters